Drop Ship News

Anyone looking for a money making home dropship business niche would do well to take a look at health and fitness products.

Dropshippers who offer health and fitness products are tapping into a very lucrative market with a huge global demand as people all over the world become more and more health conscious---ready to buy those items that will help them attain and maintain good health and wellness.

If you want a niche with the potential to make you a lot of money working from home….look no further than health and fitness products!

Here are some stats about the health and fitness industry that should be encouraging to you if you are considering this niche for a home business:

“For the most part, sales in the sports and fitness industry continue to be a mirror image of the U.S. economy,” said SGMA President Tom Cove. “As the economy begins to improve, Americans are more likely to spend more money on fitness equipment, sports gear, athletic clothing, and footwear. Overall, sports participation remains strong and solid in the U.S. though there is room for growth. We remain optimistic that 2012 will be a significant year of change for the sports industry as people are posed to be more active, play more and, hopefully, increase their spending on sports and fitness items.”

“For the most part, sales in the sports and fitness industry continue to be a mirror image of the U.S. economy,” said SGMA President Tom Cove. “As the economy begins to improve, Americans are more likely to spend more money on fitness equipment, sports gear, athletic clothing, and footwear. Overall, sports participation remains strong and solid in the U.S. though there is room for growth. We remain optimistic that 2012 will be a significant year of change for the sports industry as people are posed to be more active, play more and, hopefully, increase their spending on sports and fitness items.”

The Manufacturers Sales By Category Report is an industry overview which gives topline wholesale market size data by category, which is derived from industry submissions and survey data.

Sporting goods equipment sales rose slightly – up 2.5% -- from $20.37 billion in 2010 to $20.87 billion in 2011. The five largest categories of sporting goods equipment are:

firearms/hunting ($2.9 billion);

golf ($2.5 billion);

fishing ($2.0 billion);

camping ($1.80 billion); and

optical goods ($1.3 billion).

The categories that registered sales gains in excess of 5% in 2011 included the following:

bowling (up 10.0% to $217 million);

water ski (up 8.6% to $531 million);

martial arts (up 5.8% to $417 million);

golf (up 5.7% to $2.5 billion);

lacrosse (up 5.4% to $66 million); and

firearms (up 5.0% to $2.9 billion).

A few team sports categories actually had a solid year as sales showed a low single-digit increase. Those sports are lacrosse (up 5.4%), volleyball (balls & sets) (up 4.1%), soccer (up 2.9%), ice hockey (up 1.8%), basketball (up 1.4%), baseball/softball (up 0.3%), and football (up 0.1%). The five leading team sports categories, based on overall sales, are:

football ($521 million);

baseball/softball ($489 million);

basketball ($352 million);

soccer ($340 million); and

ice hockey ($243 million).

Exercise equipment is a $4.49 billion business- up 3.4% from $4.34 billion in 2010. Treadmill sales account for 25.5% of that entire category. After treadmills, the next two largest fitness categories are elliptical machines ($1.06 billion) and exercise cycles ($484 million). Consumer/retail spending for exercise equipment accounts for just more than 75% of the entire exercise equipment category. At the consumer level, the top three categories for sales gains were elliptical machines (up 7.1%), exercise cycles (up 5.3%), and treadmills (up 3.6%).

Wholesale sales of sports apparel were $31.4 billion in 2011, which is a 6.1% increase from $29.6 billion in 2010. The largest segment of the sports apparel industry -- at $4.8 billion – is shirts/tops. Swimwear is the second largest segment of the sports apparel business at $2.5 billion. All five divisions of the sports apparel category had an ‘uptick’ in sales in 2011. They were branded activewear (up 9.6% to $14.4 billion), performance apparel (up 4.7% to $1.3 billion), branded athletic apparel (up 3.3% to $14.2 billion), fitness apparel (up 1.7% to $320 million), and team uniforms (up 1.3% to $1.1 billion).“In recent years, tightening athletic budgets prohibited many schools from ordering new uniforms, but 2011 saw an increase in sales which bodes well for the future,” observed Cove.

Sales of sports licensed merchandise, which are largely fueled by emotion, an allegiance to an alma mater, and strong team loyalty, were steady in 2011 -- $7.385 billion, which was a 1.3% increase over 2010.

“The sports calendar is filled with big time events throughout the year which range from college football bowl games to the Super Bowl to March Madness to major golf events to the World Series to college conference championship games,” said Cove. “There is always another ‘big game’ coming up which is a spending opportunity for fans to show their allegiance to a particular sport, team, or event.”

The athletic footwear category was solid in 2011 as sales actually increased by 4.5% – from $12.61 billion in 2010 to $13.18 billion in 2011. Running remains the rising star of the athletic footwear category as running shoe sales rose 7.6% to $3.89 billion. That was the largest percentage increase of any athletic footwear category. Outdoor/adventure is another strong category as sales increased by 6.1% -- from $603 million in 2010 to $640 million in 2011. Classics/originals also had a significant 5.6% jump in sales – from $1.787 billion in 2010 to $1.887 billion in 2011. The five leading athletic footwear categories are the following:

running/jogging ($3.89 billion);

classics/originals ($1.88 billion);

kids ($1.87 billion);

basketball ($875 million); and

skate/surf ($831 million).

The SGMA's Manufacturers Sales by Category is derived from a combination of aggregated quantitative data that is collected from a sample of manufacturers in a variety of product categories. These raw numbers are then combined with a series of interviews along with other industry data. The end product gives yearly projections on the health of the sporting goods and fitness industry. It should be noted that all figures are based on manufacturers' shipments in the U.S. market and expressed in wholesale, not retail, dollar values.

The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), the #1 source for sport and fitness research, is the leading global trade association of manufacturers, retailers, and marketers in the sports products industry. SGMA helps lead the sports and fitness industries by fostering participation through research, thought leadership, product promotion, and public policy. More information about SGMA membership, SGMA's Sports Research Partnership, and SGMA's National Health Through Fitness Day can be found at www.SGMA.com.Source: http://www.sfia.org/press/464_SGMA%27s-Wholesale-Study-Reports-$77%2B-Billion-In-Sales

This is really a humongous niche, so to might be more feasible to dig down within it to find and develop a good sub-niche. Trying to handle all of the marketing, SEO, etc. for this broad a niche could be a virtual nightmare for an ecommerce entrepreneur. If you focus on just one segment of the health and fitness niche for dropshipping, you will have all you can handle and still have a big potential for sales and profits…plenty to keep your home business and thriving.

Finding wholesale suppliers can be difficult. Wholesale directories are often filled with scammers, middlemen, and outdated information. Even if you can find a few legitimate wholesale suppliers or manufacturers, they may not work with you. Most manufacturers and wholesale suppliers have strict requirements, including the need to prove you are a business, provide bank or credit referrals, and provide proof that you can meet their high-volume purchasing requirements.

The application process has to be completed for every supplier that you want to work with. Each application can take months to process, and most suppliers won’t even let you view their products until you are approved. Fortunately, you can avoid all of that stress.

Drop Ship Access makes product sourcing simple by bringing retail entrepreneurs and wholesale suppliers together. With our service you don’t have to worry about meeting seemingly impossible requirements. We won’t check your credit, and we don’t require referrals. You don’t have to prove that you own a business, and you don’t have to commit to huge orders. Our service saves you time, money, and stress.

If you want to start a profitable home business that will allow you to earn a comfortable living while working from home, here is a tip for you: Become a jewelry dropshipper!

One thing is certain about reshipping jewelry: there will always be a huge demand for it. True, you will almost certainly sell more during the winter holidays, as well as Valentine’s Day, but you can depend on a steady demand year round for this hot niche.

Jewelry has been a preferred gift to both give and receive for centuries, so you won’t have to worry about its popularity waning any time soon.

This is a huge niche and one that might lend itself well to drilling down within it to find and develop a lucrative sub niche. For instance, you may consider only focusing on fashion jewelry or fine jewelry, silver or gold jewelry, birthstone jewelry and so on. By the same token, you might decide to only be a jewelry dropshipper for earrings, or necklaces or bracelets.

There is a world of potential within this niche and anyone who is willing to buckle down and work could score some serious profits!

Jewelry Dropshipper Sales Trends

According to Euromonitor International, here is some encouraging news regarding jewelry dropshipping:

“Jewelry sales saw double-digit growth in 2011 and the trend is likely to repeat itself in 2012, based on findings by Euromonitor International, which is a market research firm that tracks jewelry sales in 32 countries. Fine jewelry is driving the growth, accounting for 87 percent of the estimated $275.4 billion global jewelry market. In fact, Euromonitor analysts say that within the past five years, fine jewelry has seen the highest growth period in history, rising 46 percent between 2007 and 2012. They project a compound annual growth rate of 7.4 percent by 2017.”

That sounds good, right? In fact, that is an excellent forecast for anyone thinking about becoming a jewelry dropshipper.

Jewelry Dropshipper Venues

So, you have decided to become a jewelry dropshipper and start your very own home business. Where can you sell the jewelry? Which online venue is best?

You have several choices when it comes to deciding where online you will dropship jewelry. Here are a few suggestions:

Amazon

eBay

uBid

eBid

Overstock

Bonanza

Your own website

A turnkey website such as ProStores

Before you decide, bear in mind that the mammoth marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon have millions of global shoppers flowing through their sites every day. Could you match that kind of traffic with your own website?

No. Especially when you are just starting out.

So, if you want or need to get cash flowing in right away, you might be well advised to go with one of those giant venues at least initially. Later, after you have been a jewelry dropshipper for a while and gotten quite a few sales under your belt and feel comfortable about ecommerce, you might think about branching out on your own.

Many drop shippers establish their own website and use sits like Amazon and eBay to drive traffic to it.

Whichever venue you choose, you can count on having a hot niche if you become a jewelry dropshipper.

If you want a great home business niche with a worldwide demand, dropshipVictoria’s Secret products!

When it comes to starting a dropship home business, you want a hungry niche, meaning one with a big global demand and plenty of prospective customers year round. Victoria’s Secret products fit the bill and are a proven winner for ecommerce.

There are probably few parts of the civilized world where the Victoria’s Secret brand is not instantly recognized. Not only recognized, but coveted---as in high demand!

This brand has been around since the 70s and has built a solid international reputation for excellence that customers have come to know and respect. The products are always popular and if you dropship Victoria’s Secret items, you get a lot of perks that can help make sales.

First of all, when you dropship a known and acclaimed brand like this, you are taking a huge leap toward gaining the confidence of online shoppers, who are notorious for hesitating to buy on the internet due to trust issues. Somehow, offering such a prestige brand gives you a psychological edge because some of the trust associated with the brand itself rubs off on you merely by virtue of selling it.

Since anything you can do to build trust will boost sales, this is no small consideration.

Victoria’s Secret is well known for lingerie, of course, but also for its line of fragrances. If you decide to dropship Victoria’s Secret products, you might be well advised to offer the fragrances. Why? Because a lot of shoppers, particularly male shoppers looking to buy a gift for a female, are clueless about what size to buy in lingerie or clothing.

Fragrance doesn’t come with those questions, since it’s a one size fits all kind of gift and therefore, easier for many people to purchase because they won’t have to worry about guessing wrong on a size.

Fragrance is a sure thing throughout the year. That being said, you can count on increased sales during the winter holidays. But there are a lot of other occasions when a shopper would find fragrance a suitable and desirable gift, such as these:

Valentine’s Day

Mother's Day

Graduation

Birthdays

Anniversaries

Bridal Showers

And More

Sometimes, one might purchase a gift of fragrance for a special person “just because.”

Victoria’s Secret has some heavenly fragrances for women and for men, too! Here are some of the most popular and hot selling Victoria’s Secret fragrance products you may want to dropship:

Dream Angels

Victoria’s Secret Bombshell

Fabulous

Sexy Little Things

Beyond Soft

Beyond Glamorous

Very Sexy

Victoria’s Secret Angel

Temptation

Platinum for Him

Seduction

Incredible

Rapture

Pink

Body by Victoria

Very Sexy for Him

And More

As you can see, this is a fantastic line up of fragrances with something for everybody.

For the optimal success in a home ecommerce business, dropship Victoria’s Secret products such as the best selling fragrances and reap the rewards of selling a famous brand name!

Anyone searching for a profitable ecommerce niche should consider this idea: dropshipOtterBox!

As any seasoned ecommerce business person could tell you, the success or failure of your endeavor will largely depend on the niche you choose. If you select a niche with a broad demographic for a target market and plenty of consumer demand, you can earn a tidy income working from home in your own business by supplying that demand.

OtterBox products are certainly in demand!

What is OtterBox & Why Dropship It?

If you are unfamiliar with the OtterBox line of products, here is a basic explanation of what they are, directly from that trusty free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, the internet authority on almost everything you could ever possibly want to know about:

“OtterBox is a privately owned consumer electronics accessory company headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado and a registered trademark that is often used generically for waterproof electronic cases for mobile devices. Founded in 1998, OtterBox originated as a manufacturer of waterproof boxes and device-specific smartphone and tablet cases designed for outdoor enthusiasts. OtterBox has since shifted focus to provide protective cases for smartphones, whose cases may or may not be waterproof.

OtterBox currently provides cases for various products such as the Amazon Kindle, the Apple iPhone, the Apple iPod Touch, the Apple iPad, the Barnes and Noble Nook, various BlackBerry phones, the BlackBerry Playbook, Boost Mobile phones, the Motorola XOOM, the Galaxy Tab, the Sony Reader, the Google Nexus 7, the Google Nexus One, various HTC phones, various LG phones, and various Samsung phones.

OtterBox cases currently come in seven different series: the Defender Series, the Commuter Series, the Impact Series, the Reflex Series, the Prefix Series, Pursuit Series, and the Armor Series.”

As you can see, there is no lack of variety if you want to dropship OtterBox products!

You might also now have more than a glimmer of understanding about why these products are in such huge demand, bearing in mind the popularity of all the devices they are made to protect!

Although most of us do love out techie toys like iPads and iPhones, the grim reality is that these devices are pretty delicate and can be exceedingly costly to repair or replace. This is where the OtterBox covers and cases really come into their own and why you will have a profitable business if you dropship them.

Sourcing OtterBox Products to Dropship

If you decide to dropship OtterBox products, remember that as is true in all retail or etail sales, you will make your money when you buy even more so than when you sell. In other words, when buying for resale as for dropshipping, you need to find the lowest, true wholesale price you can get from a wholesale product supplier in order to have a wide margin for profit.

Many so-called wholesale product sources claim to give you true rock bottom prices, but when you compare them side by side with the going retail prices; you will find that they aren’t wholesale at all. This is a deal breaker because if you buy for resale at retail prices and then turn around and sell your dropship products at retail prices, there is no margin for profit at all.

Or not enough to make your home business viable, anyway. So, the only one making any profits in this kind of deal is the product supplier, not you.

Obviously, this is not what you want. So, take the time to research wholesale product sources before you dropship OtterBox products and make sure you get the best deal you can get with genuine wholesale prices low ensure you make plenty of profit on every sale.

If you want a profitable ecommerce home business niche with a huge consumer demand, dropship OtterBox!

Here is a tip for anybody looking for a great ecommerce niche and considering outdoor sports equipment: dropship and make money from home.

Working from home is the closest thing to the Perfect Job you’re ever likely to find! What makes working from home even better, of course, is working from home and making lots of money. Outdoor sports equipment provides the ideal niche to dropship and make money from home---lots of money!

While it is certainly possible to have a successful home business with strictly seasonal products, it is usually preferable to find a niche for ecommerce that enjoys a steady, year round demand.

Outdoor sports equipment is just such a niche.

About Outdoor Sports Equipment

What is outdoor sports equipment, anyway?

Well, basically speaking, it is any and all equipment used in outdoor sports. Simple, huh? This is an exceedingly broad niche and you may decide to drill down within it to find and develop a lucrative and more manageable sub-niche.

Or, you may not.

This is entirely up to you. If you would be happier offering at least a few popular products from each seasonal outdoor sports equipment category, go for it. Your work load will increase exponentially, but so will your sales and profits and that might make the extra work acceptable to you.

There are scads of different types of outdoor sports equipment.

Types of Outdoor Sports Equipment

Here are some of the various types of outdoor sports equipment. Note that this is far from a complete list, which would take hours to compile and is more than anyone wants to write---or read.

Snow skis

Water skis

Snow boards

Surf boards

Basketballs

Footballs

Basketball goals and backdrops

Football cleats

Kneepads for football

Toboggans

Sleds

Ice skates

Skateboards

Mountain climbing equipment

Boat paddles

Life jackets

Fishing poles

Fishing tackle

And on and on

As you can see and imagine, this list really would be a LONG one in its entirety, which was what was meant by it requiring a lot of work to try and dropship all of the outdoor sports equipment within this niche.

Regardless of how you choose to break it down---or not---you can depend on a stream of traffic and more than enough potential buyers to net you a nice, comfortable living from your home business.

Where to Dropship Outdoor Sports Equipment

You have the internet as your global marketplace if you dropship outdoor sports equipment. Amazon, eBay, Overstock, your own website, ProStores….whatever venue you choose, you can be sure of having a sizeable target market.

That being said, although there are fees to be paid on Amazon and eBay, you would have access to the humongous flow of global traffic through both these giant sites and this could be very helpful in making a slew of sales and profits.

If you want a niche that will keep you in sales throughout the year, dropship outdoor sports equipment. Naturally, you will see a surge in sales during the winter holidays, as shoppers flock to the internet to buy of those on their gift lists. Outdoor sports equipment is a favorite for holiday gifts, so you can expect a spike in sales during this time frame.

Work at home and earn a great income---dropship outdoor sports equipment!

If you’re scouting around for a lucrative niche to boost sales, here’s a tip for you: Paco Rabanne wholesale dropshipproducts are HOT for the holidays!

Paco Rabanne products make a dependable year round niche, but like many other things, you can count on seeing the sale of these products soar during the winter holidays, which include Valentine’s Day.

What is Paco Rabanne?

If you are unfamiliar with this brand, you might be scratching your head an wondering just who or what the heck Paco Rabanne is, anyway.

In a nutshell, Paco Rabanne is a designer luxury brand, here’s the scoop on Paco Rabanne, compliments of Wikipedia:

“Francisco "Paco" Rabaneda Cuervo, more commonly known as Paco Rabanne (born 18 February 1934) is a Spanish fashion designer. He fled Spain for France with his mother when the Spanish Civil War broke out. He originally had an architect's education but became known as l’enfant terrible of the French fashion world in the 1960s.

Rabanne started his career in fashion by creating jewelry for Givenchy, Dior, and Balenciaga. He started his own fashion house in 1966. He used such unconventional materials as metal, paper and plastic for his outlandish and flamboyant designs.

In 1968 began the collaboration with Puig company, and as a result of it perfumes of Paco Rabanne began to be marketed. In 1976 the company built a perfume factory in Chartres, France.

Paco Rabanne is known for his costume designs for such films as Barbarella.”

Paco Rabanne Perfumes

As you can see from the info provided above, Paco Rabanne is not some 7 Day Wonder in the world of fine fragrance that will be here today and gone tomorrow. When you dropship these luxurious designer perfumes, you can be sure of attracting a global market of discerning shoppers who want and can afford the best!

Here is some information from the Paco Rabanne website:

“Starting in 1969, Paco Rabanne would also revolutionize the perfume industry, rewriting all the established codes with his own line. Calandre, his first fragrance for women, was followed by Paco Rabanne pour Homme and a host of other international successes, the most recent being the Black XS and Million scents (1 Million in 2008 and Lady Million in 2010).”

Here are some examples of Paco Rabanne fragrances you can dropship to a large target market:

Tenere by Paco Rabanne

Paco Rabanne by Paco Rabanne

Paco Rabanee Sport

Paco Rabanne Metal

Paco Rabanne Pour Elle

Paco Rabanne 1 Million

Paco Rabanne Lady Million

Eau de Paco Rabanne

Xs by Paco Rabanne

Paco Energy

Ultraviolet by Paco Rabanne

Ultrared by Paco Rabanne

Calandre by Paco Rabanne

Black Xs by Paco Rabanne

And More

Not Just Perfume

While perfume is a fabulous niche and always in demand, you can dropship a slew of popular Raco Rabanne products besides perfume, such as body wash, eau de toilette, after shave, lotion, shampoo and much more.

This presents you with a golden opportunity to cross sell, up sell and bundle! Many buyers who are going to spring for the perfume will go all out and get lotion, shampoo, body wash and other products in the same scent in order to “layer” the fragrance.

According to Statistic Brain, global perfume sales for 2011 were $27.5 billion and only about 17% of American women don’t use perfume.

So, clearly this is a wide open niche, ripe with potential for anyone who wants to break into ecommerce. Get started now! Paco Rabanne wholesale dropship products are HOT for the holidays and you still have plenty of time to get in on the extra sales!

If you are dreaming of the day you can escape a dreary, dead end job and start up your own home business in ecommerce with dropshipping sales, you might be wondering which dropship products to sell.

If you think this is important to the success of your business---you’re right!

Which dropship products to sell is absolutely vitally important to whether or not your home business is thriving and profitable….or not.

You might have the best and most carefully plotted marketing strategies, making the most of:

Email Marketing

Social Media Marketing

And More

You might work really hard and hold yourself to a well laid out plan and schedule, putting in the time and effort necessary to make money.

You might keep a close check on your website or your product listings if you’re selling on Amazon or eBay…..tweak your product descriptions to make them way above average and appealing to consumers….and so on.

But the grim truth is that if you aren’t dropshipping a product enough people want to keep you in sales---you will fall flat on your face in a dropship home business.

So, the first thing you have to do is to choose which dropship products to sell, and you will need to spend some time researching various niches until you find one that can support your home business.

If you do a Google search to try and get a handle on what niches and products are the hottest and best selling, it’s a mixed bag.

Some sources claim one set of niches is the tops, while others have a completely different view of the hottest and the best.

So, here are a few tips to help you decide which dropship products to sell:

Choose a niche that will allow you to add some value. What does this mean? It means that you should choose something in which your product descriptions and/or web content educates the shopper on what your product can do for them. What problem can it solve for them? You will discover that the majority of online shoppers that want to self assemble a dog house don’t ask, in a Google search: Where can I find cheap dog houses? Instead, they search for good quality, well made dog houses that they can put together themselves with a minimum of fuss and bother. The ecommerce entrepreneur who provides them with valuable information about assembling the dog house he or she is selling will almost certainly land the sale instead of one who merely gives the description of the finished product and a price.

Choose a niche that is basically confusing to most people. If this sounds weird, it really isn’t. By selecting a dropship niche that has most folks that want to buy it scratching their heads about how to use it or install it, you increase your ability to add value to your descriptions and content by giving them the knowledge they need in order to make an informed purchase.

Choose a niche with lots to build on. This simply means that when deciding which dropship products to sell, go for a niche that has a variety of add-ons or correlating products so that you can make more money by:

Cross selling

Up selling

Bundling

Choose a niche with a price point that most online shoppers won’t balk at, which according to e-tail analysts, is in the $100-$200 range. While products with hefty price tags such as a $1500 plasma television might be something ordinary online shoppers might back away from; they will come closer to pulling the trigger in a $150 item.

Do your homework; choose which dropship products to sell….and start your own home business!

If you haven’t been thinking about 3dcart for your home business and in fact, have never even heard of it, here is some pertinent info straight from the 3dcart website that will help you understand what it is and what it does:

Build and Design Your Own Website:

“3dcart gives you all the tools to create your website and online store. Start with over 50 website templates and the ability to create your own designs using HTML & CSS. Our exclusive Quick Edit Bar let's you make design changes in real-time as well as speed up the process of adding categories, products and webpages.”

3dcart also gives you 25 free SEO tools to work with, which is fantastic since SEO is vitally important to your success or failure in ecommerce. Along with free SEO tools, 3dcart provides you with SocialCommerce tools to help streamline your social media marketing on such sites as Twitter and Facebook or your blog. This is another extremely useful feature! Plus, you get a free built-in newsletter manager that allows you to send marketing emails to your subscribers and also has tools available so that you can quickly and easily create promotions and coupons.

Now, that is a very basic and simplified explanation of what 3dcart is and what it does for you. There are many, many excellent features and thousands of happy people using 3dcart. So, moving right along to the question of does 3dcart support dropshipping, as we mentioned earlier, that’s a yes. It does support dropshipping and is a favorite with home business owners selling dropship products online.

Drop Ship Access offers website integration with 3dcart that makes it even easier to sell dropship products on the internet! With almost 2 million high quality dropship products and a Low Price Guarantee that ensures you of getting true wholesale prices, check out Drop Ship Access and 3dcart today and be in business---making money---by tomorrow!

Tea has been around for many centuries and has long been a favorite drink of people from all nationalities and all walks of life---from carpenters to kings! Tea leaves are carefully cultivated to produce teas of various types and strengths. Iced tea is a perennial favorite in the Southern United States, where residents drink it year round and especially appreciate its cooling, refreshing goodness during the sweltering hot days of summer.

But hot tea is probably more imbibed than iced tea, and there are tea aficionados who are extremely picky about the kind of tea that finds its way to their cups.

The main point here is that if you dropship tea, you are sure to have a huge, international target market of potential customers! Nor is tea a seasonal drink. You can depend on having a big demand for tea all throughout the year. Tea is also a niche that lends itself well to building a lucrative repeat customer base, as well as bundling, up selling and cross selling as many tea drinkers will buy tea balls, tea spoons, tea cups and tea pots, too.

Here are some encouraging statistics from assorted market studies of tea sales:

Annual imports of tea into the US have grown 25% over the last 20 years. Green tea imports have increased by 118%.

Source: International Tea Committee

In 2007, the tea industry experienced a 20% growth in sales of Ready-to-Drink (RTD) teas.

Source: SPINS

The U.S. market will grow 28 percent in current prices and 18 percent in inflation-adjusted prices during 2008-2013.

Source: Mintel, Tea & RTD Teas-US, May 2009

In 2007, the industry experienced significant new product launch activity- 3,095 non-food global new product launches with tea as an ingredient.

Source: Mintel Global New Products Database

The U.S. tea market is projected to expand by more than $7 billion by 2012, with nearly three-quarters of that growth from the specialty and premium markets.

Source: Packaged Facts 2007

Tea sales in the US were expected to exceed a phenomenal $10 billion in 2010 for both beverage and non-beverage categories.

Source: The Specialty Tea is "Hot" Report

So, as you can see, dropship tea is one niche that won’t leave you in the lurch for a profitable home business!